Marie Kondo your internet

Like most closets, without a little upkeep, your footprint online can become a bit of a mess. You use many platforms to achieve different goals or to host different content. And your poor audience has to wade through it all to engage with you in the way they want.

It’s time to get tidy, the Marie Kondo way. In this article, excuse us as we labor the extended metaphor to show you how to declutter your internet.

That you’ve found this article shows you’re digitally curious – and therefore probably have profiles on at least three different social platforms. You might have a website, or your work might feature some other place. You have an email address, if not many – you might even have an email newsletter. You may have a web store, a video or a playlist. That’s a helluva lot of internet.

Right now all of that internet you own is untethered, floating through the web and waiting for someone to land on it. Frankly, it’s all a bit of a chaotic mess. To your rescue is…

The life-changing magic of Linktree

Imagine Marie Kondo got her hands on your internet – she’d want to instil some order to the chaos. Linktree is your hub where all of that internet lives. It’s the neatly organized shelving where all your best, most-loved stuff is stored.

When your audience goes to your Linktree, they’ll see what they’re expecting to find right away.

So I have a Linktree, what now?

Getting a Linktree and using it to house all of your internet is like buying a new wardrobe and stuffing everything you own into it. Marie Kondo isn’t going to like that. You need to edit.

Online audiences can be vast and varied. What one follower, or customer, wants is not what another wants. Because of that, there is a common misconception online that you need to give your audience lots of choices in order to convert. However, more choice is not always better.

The famous jam study

There’s an oft-cited study that was conducted to understand the psychology of choice, that also helps us understand choices online. It involves two jam (jelly) sample stands in a store – one stand had 24 different samples of jam, the other had 6 samples.

When results were analysed, the behavioral scientists found the stand with 24 samples drew more shoppers to it – 60% of passing shoppers stopped to sample, compared to 40% at the six-jam-stand.

However, and here’s the important bit, the ‘conversion rates’, or success of the stands differed greatly. Only 3% of samplers at the 24-jam-stand purchased. Meanwhile, over at the 6-stand, 30% of samplers purchased/converted.

The difference is a 600% increase in conversions by having fewer options to chose from. Too much choice can lead to paralysis.

The difference is a 600% increase in conversions by having fewer options to chose from. Too much choice can lead to paralysis.

And that’s jam, folks. The online world, which is insanely fast-paced and incredibly distracting, is even more sensitive to decision fatigue.

Some web pages have so much happening on them you barely know your own name by the time you’ve navigated to where you want to go. That’s if you even remember what you were after.

Linktree is the safe space where you make it easy for your audience to choose their own adventure. “When you land on a Linktree profile, you’ll notice it looks quite simple – we engineered it that way,” says Linktree Creative Director, Nick Humphreys.

When you land on a Linktree, you'll notice it looks quite simple - we engineered it that way.

“So often websites are actually pretty bad conversion tools. There can be a lot going on – from imagery to poor copy – there are multiple points where a user can drop off,” he continues. Linktree focuses the audience. Its aesthetic is a zen moment online – it eliminates distraction and drives to conversion.

Cull a few of those options and you're golden.

Streamline your Linktree to ensure it isn’t another distracting online destination. Use clean styling, clear button copy and a controlled number of CTAs (call to actions, or buttons). Rather than having 24 links on your Linktree, 4-6 options should result in higher conversions.

Make it discoverable

In a Marie Kondo’d closet, things are folded and ordered to make items easy to find. In the same way, we’ve got to make your Linktree discoverable. As a first step you’ll help it be discovered if you put your Linktree URL in all the important places: bio links across social platforms, in your email newsletters and on your portfolio.

To make your Linktree more discoverable on search engines like Google, you can also set custom meta within your Linktree admin. This means using keywords that concisely summarise your content and encourage audiences to click on your Linktree page within search results. You’ll find customizable meta tags and descriptions in Settings, as well as a guide how to use them in the Linktree Support Center.

Does it spark joy?

The last part of our analogy, fear not. Marie Kondo tells her declutter-ers to hold each item and ask themselves if doing so ‘sparks joy’. If the answer is no, the item gets canned. No kidding – it’s brutal but so is life.

And this is the part where you need to get rid of the links that aren’t converting into clicks. Using Linktree Clicks & Views analytics, you’ll be able to see which links convert over their lifetime, and which aren’t sending traffic your way. If you’re using PRO, you’ll even see a CTR (click through rate) and day-by-day analysis. If they aren’t sparking joy for your audience, can them!

You don’t have to replace the link with another if you don’t have more content to fill your Linktree – remember, fewer options may in fact convert better. Just don’t forget to thank it before saying goodbye…